Gapminder
In this section you can learn more about ‘why’ we work with constructive journalism. Here we present to you the key facts that underline the need for new ways of doing journalism.
“You can’t trust the news outlets
if you want to understand the world”
– Hans Rosling, Professor
The Story of Gapminder:
Gapminder was founded in Stockholm on February 25, 2005, by Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund and Hans Rosling (pictured above). In 2006, Hans Rosling held his first TED talk on “The best statistics you’ve never seen”. It became one of the most seen TED talks ever, thanks to its unique combination of knowledge-testing, animating bubble charts and storytelling about global development.
The foundation believes that:
“Journalists and lobbyists tell dramatic stories. That’s their job. They tell stories about extraordinary events and unusual people. The piles of dramatic stories pile up in people’s minds into an overdramatic worldview and strong negative stress feelings. The dramatic worldview has to be dismantled, because it is stressful and wrong. It leads to bad focus and bad decisions.”
Gapminder is an independent Swedish foundation which fights misconceptions about global development with facts. They work to dismantle the dramatic worldview presented by some media because they believe this type of media coverage is stressful and wrong, and leads to bad focus and bad decisions.